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False Fingerprint: The Murders of Elisabeth Congdon and Velma Pietila, and the Evidence That Turned
Paperback
Publisher: Independently Published
Published: Jun 28 2026
Pages: 334
Weight: 0.99
Height: 0.70 Width: 6.00 Depth: 9.00
Language: English
A famous mansion. Two murdered women. A case that changed under the weight of its own evidence.
On June 27, 1977, Elisabeth M. Congdon and Velma K. Pietila were found dead inside Glensheen, the historic Duluth estate long associated with wealth, family legacy, and public fascination. What followed became one of Minnesota's most closely watched true crime cases: a double murder, a trail of missing objects, courtroom testimony, disputed evidence, and a legal record that refused to stay simple.
False Fingerprint is an evidence-aware narrative nonfiction account of the Glensheen murders, following the deaths of Elisabeth Congdon and her nurse, Velma Pietila, through the investigation, the trials, and the later proceedings that complicated the public story. Rather than reducing the case to mansion lore or family scandal, the book returns attention to the two women at the center of the crime and to the evidence that shaped what the public believed.
The account moves through Glensheen before the murders, the financial pressures surrounding Marjorie and Roger Caldwell, the night the house became evidence, the objects traced away from the estate, and the legal case that initially appeared to hold. It also examines the fingerprint testimony that later fractured Roger Caldwell's conviction, Marjorie Caldwell's acquittal, the later plea record, and the civil questions raised by Velma Pietila's heirs.
This is true crime written with restraint: a historical murder case told through public records, reported claims, legal distinctions, and the limits of what the record can responsibly establish. Where the evidence is strong, the narrative is firm. Where the record is disputed, incomplete, or shaped by later interpretation, the language narrows accordingly.
For readers interested in Minnesota true crime, legal evidence, forensic error, famous murder cases, and the uneasy relationship between public memory and courtroom fact, False Fingerprint follows the case beyond the legend of Glensheen and back to the record that made it endure.
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